American VP Vance To Attend Paris AI Summit

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Feb, 2025) US Vice President JD Vance will join top tech players in Paris next week at an artificial intelligence summit billed by France as a "wake-up call" for Europe in the global race for AI.

Vance, whose attendance was confirmed Tuesday by a French diplomatic source, China's Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the highest-profile of representatives from 80 countries to mingle with players from across the sector on February 10 and 11.

The event will take place in the French capital's sumptuous Grand Palais, built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition.

In the run-up, French President Emmanuel Macron will on February 4 visit research centres applying AI to science and health, before hosting scientists and Nobel prize winners at his Elysee Palace residence on Wednesday.

A wider science conference will be held at the Polytechnique engineering school on Thursday and Friday.

"The summit comes at exactly the right time for this wake-up call for France and Europe, and to show we are in position" to take advantage of the technology, an official in Macron's office told reporters.

In recent weeks, Washington's announcement of $500 billion in investment to build up AI infrastructure and the release of a frugal but powerful generative AI model by Chinese firm DeepSeek have focussed minds in Europe.

The two superpowers are in the midst of a trade war.

France must "not let this revolution pass it by", Macron's office said.

Attendees at the summit will include Sam Altman, head of OpenAI -- the firm that brought generative models to public consciousness in 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT.

Google boss Sundar Pichai and Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis, who leads the company's DeepMind AI research unit, will also come, alongside Arthur Mensch, founder of French AI developer Mistral.

The Elysee has said there are "talks" on hosting DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, and has yet to clarify whether X owner Elon Musk -- who has his own generative initiative, xAI -- has accepted an invitation.

Confirmed guests from Europe include European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.